The Justice Department just charged 28 non-citizens in California with federal voting crimes — and is fighting to stop their ballots from being counted two weeks before Election Day. For ordinary Americans told for years that non-citizen voting was a conspiracy theory, the charges confirm the vulnerability was real and the system was wide open.
The 28 individuals charged are green card holders — legal permanent residents who are not U.S. citizens and have no legal right to vote in federal elections. According to NPR, they allegedly registered to vote or cast ballots in U.S. elections. The charges mark a significant escalation in the Trump administration's push to enforce federal voting laws ahead of the midterms.
But the DOJ isn't stopping at prosecutions. The department filed an emergency request to block California from processing ballots cast by people the federal government identifies as "likely noncitizens." The feds want California to segregate those ballots and delay counting them until investigations are complete. Last week, the DOJ sued California and Los Angeles County after local officials refused to investigate the administration's allegations of noncitizen voting.
California has asked the federal government for clarification on how it reached its conclusions. According to NPR, the state has received no response.
NPR framed the charges as part of an "escalating feud" between the Trump administration and California, and noted that election law experts doubt the DOJ's emergency request will succeed — pointing to the difficulty of changing state voting procedures just two weeks before an election with ballots already distributed. NPR also reported that research shows legal permanent residents who register to vote often do so out of a "misunderstanding of the rules."
The Daily Caller led with the charges themselves — 28 people busted for voting-related crimes — and framed the DOJ action as confirmation that non-citizen voting is happening, not a hypothetical.
Some election experts cited by NPR raised concerns that federal law enforcement could use accusations to confiscate ballots during counting. Local voting officials are reportedly preparing by keeping county attorneys on standby.
The core dispute is simple: the federal government says people who aren't citizens are on California's voter rolls and some of them have voted. California won't investigate without more information. The DOJ is now forcing the issue with criminal charges and emergency court filings. Whether those ballots get separated and held — or counted alongside everyone else's — is now a question for a federal judge, with ballots already in the mail and Election Day looming.
The question that lingers is how 28 non-citizens got onto the rolls in one state — and whether anyone in charge of those rolls views that as a problem worth fixing, or just a political feud to be managed.
